Education Industry Solutions: Worcester Vocational High School

The Director of the Vocational Department of Worcester Public Schools was determined to aggressively shorten the construction time needed to complete the new school and more quickly deliver the state of the art facility to meet the needs of the community. Part of the challenge in a project of this scope included the inefficiency caused by not having a central communications system that would easily link the diverse parties involved, including contractors, architects, and engineers, and standardize the communications process.

To do this, a system was needed that would streamline the development activities for the internal team, external partners and vendors. To achieve this, the system would have to provide:
• A central repository for all information collected during the project, securely archived.
• Access to current project information by team members.
• Real-time access to project information from any location with an Internet connection.
• Exception-based reporting system to reduce the likelihood of change order requests and construction claims later in the project.
• Sophisticated data search capabilities and collection of statistics.
• Activity and progress tracking system to improve accountability.
• Maintenance of a detailed audit trail throughout the entire development cycle.

Solution
The Vocational Department for Worcester Public Schools implemented e-Builder, an enterprise-wide, web-based system designed for owners of capital projects that helps control costs, minimize schedule delays and improve record keeping.

e-Builder provides the Vocational Department with project status information at any given moment, and alerts it to issues early on so that corrections can be made before impacting the project’s schedule and cost. As a result of using e-Builder, Worcester Public Schools’ Vocational Department manages the entire construction project using one central system. By centralizing communications through a web-based solution, all project team members and stakeholders can share, review, markup and archive project documentation using an Internet connection, greatly speeding up the flow of information. No special software is required, and the system even handles incoming faxes that are routed to pre-defined folders using e-Builder’s SmartFax technology.

The Vocational Department can also track progress more efficiently, and team accountability has improved as a result. Some of the benefits incurred include:
• Rapidly accrued savings
• Improved and streamlined communications
• Reduced administrative burden on the project
• Accurate and accountable record keeping
• Reduced costs for document printing and overnight shipping.

Find out more about how e-Builder can provide you with immediate, tangible and significant returns.Contact Us